


definitely don't want to meet my soulmate, not at all

by 90percentsalt



Category: No. 6 (Anime & Manga), No. 6 - All Media Types, No. 6 - Asano Atsuko
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Secret Santa 2018, Shion is his oblivious airhead self, for glorifiedscapgoat on tumblr, lil ooc, mostly on Nezumis part, nezumi is pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-30 01:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17214458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/90percentsalt/pseuds/90percentsalt
Summary: AU in which people are given a necklace when they are born and it gets hotter the closer they are to their soulmate.Alternatively, Shion and Nezumi are stupid.





	definitely don't want to meet my soulmate, not at all

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Glorifiedscapgoat on tumblr for the No.6 holiday exchange!

For as long as Shion can remember, the necklace he wore around his neck has always been lukewarm at most. It occasionally heated up, but never to a degree that cause for much notice. Instead, it has always just been a calming and steady presence around his neck. Always there. It took the shape of the comedy and tragedy masks, usually seen at plays. His soulmate must have been in the theatre, or at least really enjoyed watching it. 

Shion was not upset in the slightest that he was twenty years old, and has not found his soulmate. He knew that it will happen when it happens. There are people much older than him who have never found their soulmates, and even some who don’t have one at all. His best friend is one of the latter, she never received a necklace as an infant, but she was not at all upset by this, she always says to Shion whenever the topic arises, her intellectual pursuits are the only things she will ever need to feel satisfied. Not some other half of her soul, as some say. Shion is proud of his best friend and takes her lead in not worrying about any kind of soulmate, he was not going to rush it and run around looking for his fated partner like others do. And, since he never felt his necklace get any hotter than a slight twinge, he knew his soul mate felt the same. 

Instead, Shion worried about more practical things, like his twenty-page thesis he has due on less than a week, and he hasn’t even come up with a topic yet. “Oh, Shion! Are you listening to me?”

“Ah sorry Safu, I was distracted” Safu huffs and Shion smiles sheepishly at his best friend. “I am trying to help you here, you know?” Safu tries to look stern but she comes off as more fondly exasperated. 

“It’s okay,” she sighs “Have you got any ideas yet?”

“That’s my problem! I have too many! How can one take precedence when they are all so important?” Shion moves his arms around expressively, trying to relate just how conflicted he is. 

“How about you just write them all down then draw one from a hat, then research that one.”

“But Safu that is too lazy, each one needs to be considered with the utmost care. This essay could be my first step into the ecology community.”

“Shion I am sure whatever you pick it will be really good, you just need to pick one.” Safu offers to hear the topics and discuss the pros and cons of researching them, they sit and talk for a little while but then Shion has to go as he promised his mother to come and help out at the bakery. 

“I have to go, thank you so much for the help Safu, I think I will be able to pick something by tonight,” Shion says, pleased with the brainstorming session. 

“It was no problem at all Shion, see you around.” they wave each other off and walk in separate directions.

As Shion was walking his mind was filled with ideas on his essay. He was excited to get back home and do more research. Before he could start his internal checklist on all the requirements for his paper, he felt the necklace he was wearing suddenly heat up! It was the hottest he had ever felt it. Shion looked around his area, he was currently walking around on a semi-busy street, it is Tuesday around mid-afternoon, but it is also close to Christmas, so people are out shopping from store to store. Shion’s mother, Karen, her bakery is on a street with many small but nice and homey stores. So many people come and stop in while shopping for a place to rest for a time. Shion was about a block away when his necklace became heated. There was no one very notable around him, no one who was also looking around in surprise of curiosity. Shion wasn’t that disappointed, well maybe only a little, but he really does firmly believe he will meet his fated one when the time is right. 

Shion continues on his way, his necklace does not get any hotter, but, it also does not get any colder. Shion only pays it half his attention, paying attention to the heat of it. Soon enough he makes it to the bakery. There is a line almost out the door and Shion rushes in. His mother looks relieved to see him and he goes straight to the back to check inventory and see if any backups need to be made. He spends the rest of the afternoon running back and forth between getting orders and baking. He soon forgets about the necklace. 

\-----------------

Nezumi’s morning routine started off as it usually does, wake up, eat a quick breakfast, go to work, ignore the faint warmth of the necklace he was cursed with since birth. To be honest, Nezumi does not really care about the whole soulmates thing. He is as indifferent to it as he is to just about everything else in his life. He has no interest in actively seeking out some person who will almost one hundred percent guaranteed, be a burden. Nezumi was just walking down the street after his practice, they were doing a showing of Oedipus Rex in the next couple of days, Nezumi was cast as Jocasta. He stopped when he felt his necklace, in the shape of an Aster, get a little hotter. As he felt that, Nezumi had the urge to turn around and walk in the opposite direction.

He stopped himself before he could make any sudden, suspicious movements. Looking around as casual as one can, Nezumi spots a boy on the other side of the road quite the ways ahead of him, a good forty feet. The only reason Nezumi could even see him at all was due to the unusual white of his hair. The white-haired man? boy? Nezumi could not tell from the distance, for all he knew, the person could be an eighty-year-old grandmother with short hair, screw gender norms. The person was looking around a little too excitedly to be casual. Nezumi slowed his pace altogether and just watching, waiting to see what the person would do. They only stopped for a moment, soon enough they moved along, and against his better judgment, Nezumi automatically found himself following. 

Nezumi kept up the same distance, not wanting the necklace to get any warmer, to alert his suspected fated one to his presence, Nezumi was just curious, yeah, just curious. That is all, absolutely. Not at all interested in seeing who this white-haired stranger is, just...curious.

The boy, Nezumi could now tell as he got a slight view of his side profile, headed into a bakery. Karen’s Bakery to be specific. It looked like a cozy little place to visit and relax in. Nezumi might go after he makes sure his fated person is not, in fact, the one who walked in there just a moment before. Nezumi was not really surprised he felt his necklace heat up, it has been heated for as long as Nezumi can remember, not very warm but still some heat could be felt coming from it, it was only natural he would feel it get hotter eventually. It is actually a strange thing they have never come into closer contact before. 

Nezumi did not want to just stand around, so he decided to turn back, head home. He has tempted fate enough for one day. 

 

\--------

It was nearly a week later before Shion noticed that his necklace fluctuates between temperatures a lot more than it did before. He came to this realization after a moment when he feels his necklace burn more than it as before (there has been a lot of ‘more than it has before moments in the past week). As soon as Shion comes to this conclusion he comes to another one. It only gets hotter while Shion is at his mother’s bakery. Of course, Shion has no idea what to do with this information. He thankfully finished his essay the previous day, one hour before it was due, and is now done with school for the semester. He has been spending more and more time at the bakery with his mother, and since Safu is also on break, she has been over helping out too whenever she can. 

It is one of the days when the bakery is packed, completely full and everyone is running around like crazy. Karen is in the back baking her soul out, Safu is on the register and Shion is switching between both. Also doing the occasional dine check, cleaning off the few tables crammed inside, changing the garbages, sweeping, etc. Shion was in the middle of wringing up regular who ordered a couple of cheesy breads, when his necklace burned so hot, for a moment Shion was sure it would burn through his sweater. No one new walked through the door so Shion assumed his fated person must have either walked past or is outside right now. 

Shion tried not to look to too wild as he kept glancing at the door repeatedly, why do the blinds have to be conveniently closed right now?! The almost unbearable heat lasts for around another ten agonizing minutes, multiple people coming in and out of the store before, finally, a person walks in and Shion can tell in an instant that, this person, whomever they may be, is his fated one. The person he has been waiting patiently for, for twenty years. Someone who has always been so close, a constant presence, but yet so far. 

When their eyes meet a couple of things happen at once. One, the necklace he has worn every day since he was born, starts to glow. Two, Shion accidentally drops the pan of freshly made muffins he was holding, planning on restocking the bakery case. Thirdly, his soulmate is the most beautiful person Shion has ever had the pleasure of seeing, and their necklace is glowing as well, from the distance Shion thinks the necklace is that of a flower. Shion is not sure of the persons pronouns, as they are still a good distance away, and has a very androgynous face, but Shion does not care about that, only that he has found the person he was meant to be with, and they are staring right back at Shion, with an unreadable but not angry expression, more like openly curious. 

Safu looks back at Shion when she heard him drop the pan, a reprimand on her lips, but gasped loudly when she sees Shion’s necklace glowing. “Oh my, Shion!” Safu exclaimed, her tone was full of excitement and wonder for her best friend, she looks around for another person with a glowing necklace, she spots the person standing in front of the door and waves him over. 

“Hey! You there by the door, don’t just keep standing there, come and greet your soulmate!” 

The other people in the bakery, when they finally notice what is happening, watch on in varying degrees of excitement, what a rare occasion to witness two soulmates meeting! The people tried not to stare too hard and ruin the moment but most couldn’t help but the keep glancing over surreptitiously every once in a while. After about a full minute of the two just awkwardly standing there, they finally started moving. Shion bends over to pick up the pan, and the ruined muffins, mentally reminding himself to apologize to his mother and bake some more, while his soulmate makes his way over, he also bends down, helping Shion pick up the mess he made, from up close Shion can now see that his soulmate is in fact male, and is just as breathtaking up close. 

“Err hello, my name is Shion,” Shion says, slightly awkward after they had stood up, all the muffins on the pan. The man looks to be around Shion’s age, or at least no more than a couple years older, he doesn’t reply, just continues to stare. 

“Um, could I possibly get your name?” Shion asks, hesitantly, the man's eyebrows twitch for a faint second, then, in a moment of pure wonder Shion watches as his mystery man give a slight quirk of his lips and says, “Nezumi.” his voice is as perfect as his face, Shion thinks, he is suddenly looking forward to a possible forever with the person in front of him.

\---------------

Nezumi had no freaking clue what he was doing, only for the past week, every day without fail, he would walk to the place where he had first seen the person who could be his soul mate, it is not like Nezumi cares. Nope, not at all. He is still curious. So, out of curiosity, he goes closer and closer to the bakery every day. 

Until one day he finds himself right outside of it. The heat on his chest giving him mixed feelings, but none of them can be denied, he was anticipating this, from the moment he felt the hotness of the necklace on that first day. He waits outside for a good ten minutes or so before he decides to pick up his big girl panties and just go in. Nezumi doesn’t know why he is feeling so, dare he say it, nervous. He hasn’t cared about the whole soulmates troupe his entire life, and he figured he never would, but now he is all of a sudden feeling bashful? Screw that. Nezumi is a lot of things, but a coward he isn’t. 

As he pushes the door open he notices a couple of things, his necklace is glowing, which is inconvenient. His soulmate is almost directly across from him, his necklace is also glowing, also inconvenient. He also dropped the pan of baked good he was holding, so an idiot, not a huge problem, might be inconvenient. And finally, his soulmate is, confirmed now, a boy and beautiful, not inconvenient. Maybe this whole soulmate thing won’t be a huge problem after all.


End file.
